ON THE ORTHOGRAPHY 



lation, and with a due regard to the primitive power 

 of the Roman alphabet, which modern Europe has in 

 general adopted. A want of attention to this object, 

 hasoccafioned great confufionin hiftory and geography. 

 The ancient Greeks, who made a voluntary facrifice of 

 truth to the delicacy of their ears, appear to have altered, 

 by defign,almoll all the oriental names which they in- 

 troduced into their elegant, but romantic, hiftofies : 

 and even their more modern geographers, who were 

 too vain, perhaps, of their own language to learn any 

 other, have fo ftrangelydifguifed the proper appellations 

 of countries, cities, and rivers, in A/ia, that, without 

 the guidance of the fagacious and indefatigable Monfieur 

 D'Anville, it would have been as troublefome to fol- 

 low Alexander through the Panjdb on the Ptolemaick 

 map of Agathod^emon, as a6tually to travel over the 

 fame country in its prefentftate of rudenefsanddiforder. 

 They had an unwarrantable method of moulding foreign 

 names to a Grecian form, and giving them a refem- 

 blance to fome derivative word in their own tongue. 

 Thus they changed the Gogra into Agoranis, or a river 

 of the ajjembly ; Uchab into Oxydracos, or Jliarp-Jighted ; 

 and Renas into Aornos, or a rock inaccejfible to birds ; 

 whence their poets, who delighted in wonders, embel- 

 lifhed their works with new images, diflinguifhing re- 

 gions and fortreffes by properties which exifted only in 

 imagination. If we have lefs livelinefs of fancy than the 

 ancients, we have more accuracy, more love of truth* 

 and, perhaps, more folidity of judgment : and if our 

 works ihall afford lefs delight to thofe in refpeel of 

 whom we mall be ancients, it may be faid, without 

 prefumption, that we fliall give them more correct in- 

 formation on the hiftory and geography of this Eaftern 

 World; fince no man can perfectly defcribe a country 

 who is unacquainted with the language of it. The 

 learned and entertaining work of M. D'Hlrbelot, 

 which profeffes to interpret and elucidate the names 

 of perfons and places, and the titles of books, a- 

 bounds aifo in citations from the belt writers of Arabia 



and 



